Speaking to your dog in this voice will make him listen – but only as a puppy!

If you're training a new puppy, or your older dog never seems to do what you ask him, then listen up because researchers have discovered that the way you speak to your pet might make all the difference...

Tend to use a 'sing-song' tone with your pooch? Then, as the Daily Mail reports, you're on the right track, because it turns out that a high-pitch really will get their attention – but only when they're a puppy.

It looks like older dogs are far less bothered by baby-voiced commands, as researchers found that they were no more attracted by a silly voice than a normal one. Puppies, on the other hand, will definitely be taken in by those 'who's a good boy?' declarations.

During a study by City University of New York, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B, researchers asked female participants to look at pictures of puppies and adult dogs before asking them to say a variety of common phrases, including 'Come here!' and 'Who's good boy?', and were then asked to repeat the same words to a human using their 'normal' voice.

Their words were recorded and then played to 10 adult dogs and 10 puppies through a speaker. The scientists found that, while all the women used a higher pitch when chatting to dogs over humans, only the puppies responded more readily to this type of voice.

Their response to a sing-song tone was characterised as more rapid and intense than to a normal voice, as they approached the speaker more quickly and spent longer sniffing round it, while the older hounds weren't bothered.

Could it be because the adult dogs are too old to stomach being patronised? We'd certainly like to think our pet is clever enough to have such complex thoughts...

So, there you have it: if your older dog is always ignoring you, it might time to adopt some dulcet tones.